“We must participate, but we shall do so protecting our constitutional position especially the State Assets Act 1962 which gives us the power to tax services,” Drabu said.
Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu, who was speaking in the Legislative Council in the context of new Industrial Policy, said, “..after 6-8 months, GST is coming” and the state will benefit greatly from it.
“I do not believe in the fact that we should trade our power to tax with the share in taxes,” he said.
“So we are trying to find the modalities on how do we participate in the GST because as an importing state, the state that consumes more and produces less, we will benefit from GST greatly,” the minister added.
Talking about the industrial policy, the Finance Minister said, “There was an internal discussion within our government to keep this policy (on hold) for a year or so as a major change would come due to the GST regime.”
However, he added, “First we have to decide whether J&K participates (in GST) or not.”
